(Sorry to do this) Chief maybe your experience wasn't the complete picture or represents only certain areas?

I drove subs for awhile (OOD Submerged). That's why I'm saying what I'm saying. Made many unescorted surface transits. Surfaced from deep water close enough inshore to read the signs sometimes. Almost sank a sailboat one night in the Bahamas and nearly a torpedo retriever in the VaCapes.

We're invisible most of the time. That's why it's so hard to know what we're up to :-)

I roger your last but the actual thread was in regards to kayaks and there are not many kayaks far enough out to accommodate a sub's draft. I'm not saying that it's impossible to occur but it would definitely be rare.

That's what diesel-electrics and sailboats have in common, they operate extremely quietly.

Did you ever do boomers? I have several experiences with both Attack boats and Boomers as OOD on Patrol Boats and as Nav LPO on Corvettes in the Bahamas areas and southward. You gotta love a Port of Call in Port Canaveral, Fl.

Wasn't that a candy bar commercial in the 1980s? Little girl and grandpa in a rowboat, a big Russian boomer (Typhoon?) comes up with them on the missle deck, Capt comes out and gets offered some candy?

Good thought, esp if you're near a sub base. Man, I'd be pissed if I got hit by one of them though. We'd have some words. (probably "Blub blub, gurgle gurgle")

I was Fast Attack.

Port Canaveral - yep. The small craft were annoying until the young ladies started removing their clothing and smiling for the few sailors above decks. The periscope camera stopped moving in search when that happened.


In general, kayakers don't have to worry about submarines but.... you can never be completely sure until you're holding your kayak over your head on dry land :-)

Sue, the hubcaps really have little to do with the return signature. The headlights give the best return, with the reflectors at the back of the bulb. You can tell the hubcap guys that, if they chew the tinfoil, the radio waves created from the contact with the fillings in their teeth, will jam police radios...